According to a survey, about a quarter of the increase was related to marijuana, including some who moved hoping to find work in the marijuana industry. But as the industry is still in its infancy, there aren't a lot of jobs to be had.

Shelter operators in Seattle say they haven't seen an increase in homeless youth, but operators like Steele worry eight months from now, the scene may start to look a lot more like Denver.

"It’s hard to work with young people when they’re here for that reason. We have a lot more success working with young people who are ready to take steps to get off the streets."

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Skip

There’s already a lot of homeless people, of all ages, from booze and tobacco habits, so pot will probably add to the problem just like Denver. I see lot of baby boomer burn outs with grey hair sleeping in the parks. The hispanic people are working their butts off at all the construction sites.

how can you blame the pot on more homeless youth for one thing its illegal for them to buy from the shops and dont say its easier for them to get it now. it was just as easy before pot was legal duh. this is just more bullshit from the people against pot . But hey if your that stupid then believe it

There is no relation to recreational cannabis, & homeless youth in Washington. Cannabis is illegal in Washington state to anyone under 21 years of age. If your under 21 years of age you can not work in the recreational cannabis industry period. Any festival, like Folk Life, or Bumpershoot, were there is music there will be an influx of youth, its not because of cannabis. Recreational cannabis will create jobs for adults, and millions in tax dollars for Washington state. Its an assumption for Fox News to claim there is some kind of correlation between cannabis, & homeless youth. Of course they can not present any real statistics on homeless youth, and cannabis because its just a wind up story, to cause hysteria.

Ray

The logic in the article is horrible. Not only because of the things mentioned in the comments but the fact that Downtown Seattle has an ish load of homeless people. I visited, from NYC, for the first time earlier this year and was taken aback by the number of homeless druggies downtown. Not a fan of pot smokers but pot would be an improvement to whatever these people were on.

Bernie

People are homeless because the price of housing is so high as well as the price of food, gasoline and utilities. Some homeless people do drugs (and booze is a drug) ’cause living on the streets sucks and who wants to be fully mentally engaged in that reality, better to dull the mind.